Skip to main content

A Distributed Task Specification Language for Mixed-Initiative Delegation

  • Conference paper
Book cover Principles and Practice of Multi-Agent Systems (PRIMA 2010)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 7057))

Abstract

In the next decades, practically viable robotic/agent systems are going to be mixed-initiative in nature. Humans will request help from such systems and such systems will request help from humans in achieving the complex mission tasks required. Pragmatically, one requires a distributed task specification language to define tasks and a suitable data structure which satisfies the specification and can be used flexibly by collaborative multi-agent/robotic systems. This paper defines such a task specification language and an abstract data structure called Task Specification Trees which has many of the requisite properties required for mixed-initiative problem solving and adjustable autonomy in a distributed context. A prototype system has been implemented for this delegation framework and has been used practically with collaborative unmanned aircraft systems.

This work is partially supported by grants from the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (SSF) Strategic Research Center MOVIII, the Swedish Research Council (VR), the VR Linnaeus Center CADICS, the ELLIIT Excellence Center at Linköping-Lund for Information Technology, and the Center for Industrial Information Technology CENIIT.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Castelfranchi, C., Falcone, R.: Toward a theory of delegation for agent-based systems. In: Robotics and Autonomous Systems, vol. 24, pp. 141–157 (1998)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Cohen, P., Levesque, H.: Intention is choice with commitment. AI 42(3), 213–261 (1990)

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  3. Cohen, P., Levesque, H.: Teamwork. Nous 25(4), 487–512 (1991)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Conte, G., Doherty, P.: Vision-based unmanned aerial vehicle navigation using geo-referenced information. EURASIP Journal of Advances in Signal Processing (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Conte, G., Hempel, M., Rudol, P., Lundström, D., Duranti, S., Wzorek, M., Doherty, P.: High accuracy ground target geo-location using autonomous micro aerial vehicle platforms. In: Proceedings of the AIAA-2008 Guidance, Navigation, and Control Conference (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Davis, E., Morgenstern, L.: A first-order theory of communication and multi-agent plans. Journal Logic and Computation 15(5), 701–749 (2005)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  7. Doherty, P., Granlund, G., Kuchcinski, K., Sandewall, E., Nordberg, K., Skarman, E., Wiklund, J.: The WITAS unmanned aerial vehicle project. In: Proc. ECAI (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Doherty, P., Haslum, P., Heintz, F., Merz, T., Persson, T., Wingman, B.: A distributed architecture for intelligent unmanned aerial vehicle experimentation. In: Proc. DARS (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Doherty, P., Meyer, J.-J.C.: Towards a Delegation Framework for Aerial Robotic Mission Scenarios. In: Klusch, M., Hindriks, K.V., Papazoglou, M.P., Sterling, L. (eds.) CIA 2007. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 4676, pp. 5–26. Springer, Heidelberg (2007)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  10. Duranti, S., Conte, G., Lundström, D., Rudol, P., Wzorek, M., Doherty, P.: LinkMAV, a prototype rotary wing micro aerial vehicle. In: Proc. IFAC Symposium on Automatic Control in Aerospace (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Bellifemine, F., Bergenti, F., Caire, G., Poggi, A.: JADE – a Java agent development framework. In: Multi-Agent Programming - Languages, Platforms and Applications (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Falcone, R., Castelfranchi, C.: The human in the loop of a delegated agent: The theory of adjustable social autonomy. IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics–Part A: Systems and Humans 31(5), 406–418 (2001)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. van der Hoek, W., van Linder, B., Meyer, J.J.C.: An integrated modal approach to rational agents. In: Wooldridge, M., Rao, A. (eds.) Foundations of Rational Agency (1998)

    Google Scholar 

  14. Kvarnström, J.: Planning for loosely coupled agents using patrial order forward-chaining. In: Proc. ICAPS (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  15. Kvarnström, J., Doherty, P.: Automated planning for collaborative systems. In: Proceedings of the International Conference on Control, Automation, Robotics and Vision (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Landén, D., Heintz, F., Doherty, P.: Complex Task Allocation in Mixed-Initiative Delegation: A UAV Case Study (Early Innovation). In: Desai, N., Liu, A., Winikoff, M. (eds.) PRIMA 2010. LNCS(LNAI), vol. 7057, pp. 288–303. Springer, Heidelberg (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  17. MacKenzie, D.C., Arkin, R., Cameron, J.M.: Multiagent mission specification and execution. Auton. Robots 4(1), 29–52 (1997)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Merz, T., Rudol, P., Wzorek, M.: Control System Framework for Autonomous Robots Based on Extended State Machines. In: Int. Conf. on Autonomic and Autonomous Systems (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  19. Olsson, P.M., Kvarnström, J., Doherty, P., Burdakov, O., Holmberg, K.: Generating UAV communication networks for monitoring and surveillance. In: ICARCV (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  20. Rudol, P., Wzorek, M., Conte, G., Doherty, P.: Micro unmanned aerial vehicle visual servoing for cooperative indoor exploration. In: Proc. of the IEEE Aerospace Conference (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  21. Simmons, R., Apfelbaum, D.: A task description language for robot control. In: IROS (1998)

    Google Scholar 

  22. Ulam, P., Endo, Y., Wagner, A., Arkin, R.C.: Integrated mission specification and task allocation for robot teams - design and implementation. In: ICRA (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  23. Wzorek, M., Conte, G., Rudol, P., Merz, T., Duranti, S., Doherty, P.: From motion planning to control – a navigation framework for an unmanned aerial vehicle. In: Proceedings of the 21st Bristol International Conference on UAV Systems (2006)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Doherty, P., Heintz, F., Landén, D. (2012). A Distributed Task Specification Language for Mixed-Initiative Delegation. In: Desai, N., Liu, A., Winikoff, M. (eds) Principles and Practice of Multi-Agent Systems. PRIMA 2010. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 7057. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-25920-3_4

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-25920-3_4

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-25919-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-25920-3

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics